Gregor the Underlander
by sampsonmantisshrimpies
Summary: Gregor, now 18 years old, finds out he has to go back to the Underland to fulfill more prophecies. I AM WORKING WITH 3005424 AND DO NOT OWN ANY OF SUZANNE COLLIN'S CHARACTERS
1. Chapter 1- Mail

**Chapter 1**

 **Mail**

Gregor was running down a tunnel, slipping and sliding on the wet stone surface. He heard the rats coming and knew he needed to get to Boots. He took off and heard Boots' screams get, if possible, even louder. " _Boots!_ " Gregor screamed. He came out of the tunnel, searching for Boots.

And then he saw her.

A large rat was holding his eight-year-old sister off a cliff, dangling her by the back of her shirt, grinning menacingly.

Gregor's heart skipped a beat. If he ran up to the rat, it surely would drop his sister, but it would probably drop her anyway, and with no flyer to catch her...

The rat chuckled, watching him choose whether or not to attack, when something slammed into Gregor's back.

Gregor flew across the ledge, landing at the rat's feet. The rat laughed and suddenly, Boots wasn't in its claws anymore. She was sailing right past Gregor, screaming.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Gregor screamed, but it was too late. Boots was falling, and now, suddenly, _he_ was falling, falling, falling...

Gregor woke with a start. He'd been having dreams much like that lately, ever since his rager side had been taking over him… _Don't think about that now,_ he thought. _You're never going to see them again._

It had been six years since he'd been in the Underland, a place hundreds of miles beneath Earth's surface. It was a place full of people with pale skin and purple eyes among many giant cockroaches, rats, ants, moles, snakes, mice, spiders, and plants that would try to kill you. Gregor had accidentally fallen down there when he was eleven with Boots, who had been two at the time. The Underlanders had thought him destined to be the warrior mentioned in several prophecies written by the founder of the Underland, Bartholomew Sandwich. He'd been on many quests with the Underlanders, and even bonded with a bat, Ares. But Ares was dead now, killed by Pearlpelt, who was called "The Bane." The only thing Gregor could remember him by was a little, plastic bat Boots had given him when she saw he was sad about Ares.

The Underland used to be a place full of war, but as far as Gregor knew, his old friend down there, Luxa, had put a stop to it by bonding with Ripred, a rat. Their only problem now that Gregor was aware of was the cutters, ants who eat through everything, threatening to attack Regalia's borders.

After Gregor and his family had come back up to the Overland, they had decided not to move to their uncle's farm in Virginia like they'd been planning, but to move to a nicer, fancier apartment building that they could then afford, since his dad was going back to his old job as a science teacher. Mrs. Cormacy, their neighbor, had moved to the same building. When Gregor had asked her why she was "following" them, she had said, "I just felt that I needed a change. And as old as I am, I need it." Mrs. Cormacy didn't strike Gregor as _old_ exactly, but he figured that was only because of her personality. She always wanted to help, no matter the cause; as long as it did some good in the world, she helped the best she could.

Gregor swung his legs over the side of his bed and yawned. He'd been having nightmares all night. He heard his sisters fighting over something, so he went out of his room- if you could call it that- to find them arguing over a book.

"It's mine!" Lizzie screamed.

"No, mine!" Boots screamed back.

"Hey!" shouted Gregor. The two stopped screaming and turned towards him. "What are you fighting about now?" Gregor asked, annoyed. Both of his sisters were getting older, which meant a teenager and a third grader, which doesn't work out very well.

"Boots took my textbook, and I need to do my homework!" Lizzie said. Gregor realized she had been screaming out of desperation, not anger. That explained quite a bit, as Lizzie almost never really got angry.

"I wanna do something!" Boots shouted back. Now that Boots was eight, she always wanted attention, therefore causing arguments and fights about stupid things.

"Boots, it's Lizzie's book, and you don't need it," said Gregor. He finally convinced Boots to go with him to the playground to leave Lizzie in peace.

"Thanks, Gregor," Lizzie whispered to him as he pulled on his coat.

"No problem," he whispered back.

When Boots and Gregor came home half an hour later, Lizzie suddenly looked very cheerful. _Too_ cheerful.

"Hi! Did you have fun?" She asked them.

"Um, yeah, I guess- well, I mean, _Boots_ had fun, she was playing, but why are you-" Gregor pulled up short. He'd just noticed his mom and dad were in the room. Sometimes Lizzie acted like this when their parents were there so Gregor could tell if she needed to tell him something without them listening.

"Yeah, it was really fun! I took some pictures on the cell phone, but it's about dead, _let's go charge it._ " Gregor said.

"Yeah, ok!" Lizzie said, and they went to his room.

When the door had shut, Gregor said, "Okay, what's going on?"

"Well, you have mail," she said nervously. Gregor's heart skipped a beat. "Mail" was what his family used to call it when the head of the Underland council, Vikus, would send messages up to the laundry grate downstairs.

But they hadn't gotten any messages from them in years- what could they possibly be needing now?

"Oh...well, what'd they say?" Gregor asked, trying not to sound too worried.

"All it said was something about... well, here, I'll show you..." She said, and she started digging around her shorts pocket.

"Yeah, here." She handed him a crumpled up piece of parchment with writing on it. Gregor took it, his hand shaking, and read it. It was written in sloppy writing, as if someone had written in in a hurry, with ink blots everywhere.

 _Neither the Overland nor the Underland is safe anymore. You are in danger. Gather your family. Meet Nike at the Central Park opening as soon as you can._

 _-Vikus_

Gregor read it through several times before saying anything.

"Well, we better get over there. I don't know how Mom will let us go, though," he said glumly.

"Don't worry- you get Boots, I'll go convince Mom." Lizzie said, getting to her feet.

"You sure?"

"Trust me." She said, squeezing his hand.

They left the room to find their dad watching TV and their mom on the couch, reading a book. Gregor saw a puzzle scattered all over the floor, Boots crawling around it, looking for a piece. Gregor walked over to her and whispered, "Do u remember going down the laundry grate, and the rock in Central Park to the Underland?" Her face lit up as soon as he said, "laundry grate" and she said, "Yeah, and Luxa and Ares and Ripred and the rats and-" Gregor shushed her, not wanting their parents to hear. Luckily, his dad's show was blaring so loud that he could barely even hear himself talking to her. Once his dad had gotten rid of the returning sickness from the rats' land miles below them, he had gone back to being his old self.

Gregor hesitated to ask another question, not wanting her to get his parents worked up over it without him explaining what was going on. They were already sad about his grandma dying that summer. Their grandma was a very touchy subject lately. She had been very sick before, but that summer, it had gotten way worse. She died a month after finding out she had a brain tumor.

Anyway, Gregor was getting really worried about the note. How much time had passed before it'd been sent? He thought about Luxa, about Vikus, about Ripred; about all of the people down there he loved- were they okay? He wasn't sure of anything anymore. None of it seemed real.


	2. Chapter 2- Convincing the Parents

**Chapter 2**

 **Convincing the Parents**

Gregor watched as Lizzie walked over to their mom and said, "Hey, Mom, wanna go make cookies? We haven't for a long time." Their mom looked at the clock and said, "Oh, I suppose, but you can't have any until after dinner!" The two walked into the kitchen and Gregor heard the two of them start getting ingredients ready. When Gregor was sure they couldn't hear him, he walked over to his dad and said, "Dad we really need to- will you turn that down?!" The TV was now so loud his dad hadn't heard a thing he said, and to be honest, neither had Gregor. His dad shut the TV off quickly and turned to Gregor.

"Sorry- what was that, Gregor?"

"I need to talk about something really important."

His dad's eyebrows raised. "Oooooooohhhhh, _that_ kind of talk…" he said.

"Yeah, you- Wait, _what?!_ " Gregor said, wondering what his dad was talking about.

"Oh, you know, you met a girl, realized you kinda like her, and you don't know what to do about it and-"

Gregor interrupted him before the conversation got even weirder than it already was.

"Uh, _no_! This has _nothing_ to do with girls! Well, I suppose there're girls involved, but there's a lot of people involved and-"

His dad just laughed. "I know, son, I was just messing with you," he said. "So, what did you _really_ want to talk about?"

Gregor explained to his dad that Lizzie had gotten the note and they needed to go down.

"-And we need to go _now_ ," Gregor said, making sure his dad knew the importance of the situation.

His dad just sat there, looking stunned. Gregor waited a few moments before saying, "So… what do you think?"

He still just sat there, not saying a word, too shocked to say anything. Finally, he said, "What do I _think_? I try to forget the fact that thousands of miles below us, there's a whole nation in war, I try to keep you and your sisters and mother out of danger from it, and you want to know what I _think_ about going down there- _again?_ What do I think? What do I _think_?!" Gregor was sure the answer would be a "No-sir-ee, you're never going down there again!" but his dad did the thing he least expected.

"Of course you should go down! They're in danger, there's probably at least _one_ more prophecy about you, and you're the warrior they've been waiting for for centuries! You need to get down there! You'll have a hard time convincing your mother, though…."

Suddenly, Gregor heard a crash that sounded like glass shattering. He and his dad got up and ran over to the kitchen doorway. In the kitchen was Lizzie, backed against a wall, looking horrified at his mother, who was by the sink, her hands cupped, as though they were still holding the shattered bowl at her feet.

"Woah, what happened in here?" Gregor's dad said, looking around at the glass scattered all over the floor. Lizzie started shaking and panting- another one of her panic attacks. She had them often, but only when they talked about something scary. She'd had a major one when she found out her grandmother had passed away, but whenever anyone spoke of the Underland- which wasn't very often anymore- she'd start shaking and panting, exactly like she was then.

"I-I-I tried to t-tell m-mom that they sent a-a-a-a-a-" Now she was getting to the part where she couldn't even talk or breathe anymore. Gregor's dad got a brown paper bag, opened it up, and put it over her mouth and nose. She held it there, still panting, but it was longer pants now. After about a minute, she could somewhat talk again.

"I-I tried to tell m-mom about the note, but she-she froze and she d-dropped the b-bowl and I-I didn't know wha-what to do…" She let out a sob and Gregor's mom let her hands drop down to her sides. She still said nothing, looking shocked. Gregor's dad frowned and wrapped his arm around her. He asked Boots and Gregor to clean up the mess as he took Lizzie and their mom into the living room.

"So, are we going to go to that place? What was it called, anyway? I don't remember," Boots said, getting the broom from the corner.

"Regalia, in the Underland," Gregor said, holding the dustpan as Boots sweeped the glass in. When they finished, Gregor took Boots' hand and led her into the living room, where Lizzie was cuddled against his dad, his mom still looking stunned, but not near as much as she did before.

"So, um… what do you think, Mom? Can we go?" She looked at Lizzie, who looked at Boots, who looked at Gregor, who looked at their dad, who smiled and said, "Of course! If they're in trouble, you need to go down there! Just promise us you won't get killed or seriously hurt or anything like last time, and also that you'll get them outta trouble! That's all we care about- that everybody's fine in the end. Just make sure that "end" is soon, though, 'cause we don't want you to be down there for too long!" Gregor's mom seemed to come out of shock and the look on her face changed quickly from stunned to sad, to worried, to angry, to sympathetic, and back to angry.

"Why the _heck_ would I _ever_ let you go back down there?! You've had enough chances to be killed, we've tried to give you a normal life again, and you want to just toss all we've done to keep you away from those _freaks_ away so you can go on a play-date with them and get yourself killed- _again_?!"

Gregor was only a little surprised. He'd expected an outburst, but he didn't expect her to insult his friends, the people he loved...

"Mom, I'm _eighteen_! Do you really think I would go just to get myself killed?! I can take care of myself! And Vikus said we're all in danger, so all of us need to go down, so you'll be able to make sure you know where I am and everything- and you're making it sound like the people down there are psycho serial killers that hate me!"

" _I'm not going to lose you again!_ " his mom screamed, and suddenly, she broke down in sobs. Gregor sighed. She'd been like this before, years ago. When he'd said he had to go down to the Underland, and she'd had to face a bunch of rats trying to break into the apartment building before she'd said yes.

"Mom, I'll be okay. I will make sure nothing will happen to anyone. I'll try my best not to get killed," Gregor said soothingly, sitting next to his mom.

"You know me, Mom- I don't just go into danger for the fun of it or anything- that's the rager part of me. I will try and control it, but you need to understand that if anything happens to me, it's not the Underlanders' fault."

"Yes, but I don't want to lose anyone else I love! I have been trying to _forget_ about the Underland, and you suddenly want to go _back down there_?"

"Mom, do you trust me with Boots' life?" Gregor said, knowing the answer.

"Yes, but-"

"Do you trust me with Dad's life?"

"Of course, yes, but-"

"Do you trust me with _my_ life?"

"It isn't a matter of trust, it's because you're just a kid and-"

"Ha! First of all, you didn't answer my question! Second of all, I am _not_ a kid! Not anymore! I'm _eighteen_ , and I'm not a kid anymore! Now, _do you trust me with my life?_ "

Gregor knew he'd gotten his mom worked up, but it'd been about an hour since Lizzie had gotten the note, so the Underlanders could be in serious trouble now. He needed to get down there, whether his mom liked it or not. And right now, he had a point to make.

"Sweetie, I trust you, I just don't trust the things down there. I'm okay with the Underlanders, it's just that there're so many times you could've been killed, and I don't want that to happen again, and-"

"I know, Mom. That's what I'm trying to say. I trust the Underlanders. _You_ trust the Underlanders. And I won't go out without anyone knowing. But I _need_ to get down there. People I love are down there. Do you understand?" His mom sat there, torn between letting her son go get himself killed, or keeping him there while everybody below them died or something. If there was one thing his mom was worried about, it was how Gregor felt. She couldn't stand to see him sad or alone, but she didn't want him killed, either. All this flashed across her face.

"-Er, well, I don't- I-I need to- I don't- I want- I don't want you to die and- well- Boots- Gregor, I-I think you- Er- you have- um- I- _fine!"_ she finally screamed, making everyone in the room jump.

"Now get your things ready, before I change my mind!" She stood up and walked into her bedroom, slamming the door.

Gregor's dad grinned.

"Hey, kid, you did it! You got her to say yes! Even _I_ don't have that kind of power!" he said, slapping his hand on Gregor's back. "Well, we better get packing!" Gregor's dad said.

"Yeah. Wait- _we?_ You guys are going?" Gregor asked, wondering why his dad thought they should go.

"Well, yeah- Boots can help with the roaches, and Lizzie is on the code breaking team, so if they need either of them- we're not leaving without you."

"Yeah, okay, whatever," Gregor said, wanting to get a move on.

They packed quickly, wanting to get down as soon as they could. Gregor packed himself two extra outfits, 3 flashlights, a pack of batteries, and a first aid kit his mom had given him for when he was babysitting his sisters. It had an ace bandage, a bunch of band aids, a tube of some sort of ointment, and some pain relieving pills. Lizzie finished the cookies her and her mom were making and packed a bag. Gregor didn't know what she'd packed, but there was a corner of something sticking into the side, threatening to tear it.

"Here, I'll fix your bag, Liz- it looks like it might tear," Gregor said. As soon as he moved towards it, Lizzie freaked.

"No! You can't- um, well, I can fix it, Gregor," She said. Gregor looked at her, wondering why she freaked out about it.

"Oh, okay," was all he said.

Gregor helped Boots pack some extra outfits and a bunch of little kid flashlights with princesses on them. He gave her some of his batteries and asked Lizzie if she still needed flashlights. He had mastered echolocation, the ability to see with your ears, so he no longer needed flashlights. He always took a few just in case, though.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot we'd need light," Lizzie said when Gregor offered her a flashlight. He handed her a flashlight and a handful of batteries. Then, he stood up and looked around.

"Do we really need anything else? Lizzie, did you pack everything you need?"

"Yep!"

"Then let's get going," Gregor said. "Dad, are you and Mom ready?" he asked his father, who was just going back into the living room from his bedroom.

"So… let's get going," Gregor said to the rest of his family, who was waiting by the door. They went out of their apartment into the hall, where they found Mrs. Cormacy, their neighbor, waiting for them. Wondering what she was doing there, Gregor said, "Oh, hi, Mrs. Cormacy! We need to go, um, run some errands for Mom-"

Mrs. Cormacy cut him off, waving her hand, saying, "Oh, don't give me all that, darling, I know where you're going- you need to go back down to that Underland place, don't you?"

"Um, yeah, but how did you-?"

"Oh, don't worry about that, now sweetie- I just wanted to give you this, since you'll probably have to go on another one of those quest type of things," Mrs. Cormacy shoved about half a dozen containers into Gregor's empty hands. Gregor opened one of them and found a sort of casserole. He closed it, saying, "Food?"

Mrs. Cormacy nodded, saying, "Yeah, I thought- since you said before that there were many times you almost starved to death down there- that I'd give you a little extra food to take on your little trip with your sisters."

Gregor looked down and saw Boots was running around, singing a song Howard, an Underlander from the Fount, had taught her.

" _Two tiny rows,_

 _Of five tiny toes,_

 _Give Boots ten reasons to wiggle her nose,"_

Boots went " _Whew,_ " for that was the part of the song during which Howard would normally put her foot up to his nose and lean back, making a noise and pretending that they stank.

" _Wiggle your nose,_

 _At eight, nine, ten toes,_

 _Then give them a bath so each tiny toe glows!"_

Gregor felt a smile creep across his face, but he shook his head and said, "Come on, Boots, we have to go! Thanks for everything, Mrs. Cormacy!" Gregor grabbed Boots and Lizzie by the hand and started dragging them down the hall.

"Anytime! Good luck!" Mrs. Cormacy called down to them, waving her hand in farewell as they made their way out of the building, following their parents.


	3. Chapter 3- Going Under

**Chapter 3**

 **Going Under**

When Gregor's family was finally done walking to the rock in Central Park, Gregor's dad pulled a crowbar from the bag on his back and used it to pry the rock off of the ground. It took some time because, as far as Gregor knew, the rock had not been moved since he had left the Underland years ago.

When it finally moved enough for his dad to lift it slightly and drag it around to the side of the hole, Gregor went into it and down the steep steps and into a room with a hole almost like a well in the center, his family following with flashlights. He looked over and noticed his mom was shaking, with fear. He took a few steps towards her and hugged her.

"It's okay, Mom. We will all be safe."

"I hope you're right," she said, hugging him back and wiping a tear from her cheek. He pretended not to notice.

Suddenly, a new voice that Gregor had not heard for years came out of the gaping hole in the floor, saying, "Greetings, princess." Gregor smiled. Nike, the daughter of Queen Athena, was waiting for them just below the hole.

"Greetings, princess!" Boots said, laughing as she dove into the hole. Their mom started to protest, but she stopped when she saw that Gregor was smiling. Sighing, she too jumped through the hole. Next was Gregor, followed by his dad. When he landed, he clicked his tongue once more to see that he was riding on a bat he didn't recognize. He- or she, he couldn't really tell- was blue, with gold stripes across his wings. To his right was Boots and his mother, riding on Nike, and to his left was Lizzie and his father, riding on Andromeda, his friend Mareth's bat.

"Have we met?" Gregor asked the bat he was riding, and the bat hissed back, "No, Overlander. I am Aether." He hesitated, then said continued, "Your friend Howard's bat was my sister." Gregor's heart sank. Howard, Luxa's cousin, had lost his bond, Pandora, during Gregor's journey to fulfill the second prophecy he had encountered. A swarm of flesh-eating bugs had eaten her alive, right down to the bone, and had almost eaten his own bond, Ares, too, but Ares had managed to shake them off. Ares…

 _Stop it,_ he told himself, and he tried to focus on the situation at hand. "So, what's going on? Why are we coming back? Not that I'm complaining or anything," he said quickly, not wanting to insult the big bat.

"The cutters. I believe you left just as we started strategizing how we would defend our lands from them?" Gregor nodded, and Aether continued, "They first attacked a few nibbler colonies a few weeks after you left, which didn't help the fact that they were almost extinct."

Gregor's mouth fell open. "Did any survive?"

Aether nodded. "One, but the Regalian doctors still aren't sure if he will make it. He had many, many wounds. Problem is, he was driven insane, and he keeps somehow managing to break the scars back open before they can heal properly."

"Insane? How?" Gregor's father asked from next to him.

"He kept running through the city, screaming, 'They're coming to kill us! They're going to destroy the Underland until there is no longer life!'"

"Who, the cutters?" Gregor asked.

"Well, we assumed so. What else could it be?" Aether said.

They sat in silence for most of the ride, with the occasional questions from Gregor's parents, asking about Vikus and their other friends in Regalia, but Lizzie talked the most. She kept asking the bats if Ripred was okay every five minutes, which Gregor found slightly annoying, but he didn't really care. He was just excited to be back at what felt like his true home.

When they entered Regalia's borders, the guards saw them flying over them and followed them, shouting to people, "It's the warrior! The warrior is back! The warrior has returned!" Gregor smiled.

Everything in Regalia had been rebuilt. On their flight, they saw buildings they hardly recognized anymore, the walls covered in new murals of rats helping humans and crawlers guiding nibblers. Some of the bigger ones showed Gregor himself, battling an entire army of rats with a fierce look on his face.

Finally, they reached a building Gregor vaguely recognized as the High Hall. They landed on the ground and Gregor's family slid off of their bats, looking around and smiling. On the farthest wall, above the doorway, was an enormous picture of two of Gregor's best friends. One of them, a girl who looked twelve or thirteen years old, had shoulder-length hair, a band around her head that Gregor knew was gold, and had her hand extended out to grasp a claw. Gregor's eyes followed the claw and saw his other best friend, a rat with two scars crossing over his face to form an "X." Both of them had bold looks on their faces and were smiling slightly.

"Where _is_ Luxa?" Gregor asked Aether, grinning. His smile faded when he saw the look on the blue bat's face.

"She… well, Vikus can tell you," Aether said, looking at the ground sadly.

"What? She's not dead, is she?" Gregor asked, horrified.

"No, she is not dead. But she is not in Regalia. As I said, Vikus will tell you," Aether said stiffly, and he spread his vast, gold-and-blue wings, flying up and over the High Hall's wall gracefully. The other two bats followed him after quick goodbyes to Gregor's family. A minute later, an old man in a sort of wheelchair was wheeled in by Gregor's friend, Mareth.

"Mareth! Vikus!" Gregor said, running up to them.

"Overlander!" Mareth said, patting Gregor's back. Gregor saw that his friend looked completely comfortable with his prosthetic leg, which he had gotten due to a very extreme injury years back.

Vikus gave a small wave of his right hand and said "Hello," in a weak voice. He had been partly paralyzed due to a stroke he'd had just before Gregor had left. His wife, Solovet, had been killed, and he had not taken it well.

"Aether said Luxa is… well, he didn't really say what happened," Gregor said, looking back and forth between Mareth and Vikus.

"Ah, yes… I suppose we shall get Hazard, since he _is_ like a brother to her, and we shall all discuss it over dinner," Mareth said, his smile fading.

"Hazard!" Boots squealed, grinning and giggling.

"Yeah, Boots, we're gonna see Hazard!" Gregor said, smiling a little.

"I shall go get him. As far as I know, he's been playing with the gnawer pups all morning. That is another thing we must discuss," Mareth said, looking at Gregor, and his heart sank.

Years ago, when Gregor had been down in the Underland to fulfill the Prophecy of Time, some people from Regalia had spotted a basket floating along the Waterway. When they had pulled it up, it had been full of nibbler pups. If Gregor was right- and the look on Mareth's face told him he was- the gnawer pups Hazard was playing with at that very moment had been sent down the Waterway to keep them safe from whatever was happening to their parents, just like last time.


	4. Chapter 4- Rumor Has It

**Chapter 4**

 **Luxa's Quest**

Mareth came back about ten minutes later riding his bond, Andromeda, with a few other bats following close behind them. When they landed, Gregor grinned at their riders.

One of the bats had black and white stripes, just like a zebra, and a man with shoulder-length hair hopped off of her and helped a giant cockroach slide off of her back. Another bat was unusual-looking; it had a small body with a giant head and giant wings spanning across its back. Its shape made it appear unbalanced, especially, Gregor noticed, when it walked. A little boy, about nine or ten years old, hopped off of the bat and ran up to Gregor and his family.

"Gregor! Boots! Lizzie!" he shouted as he ran, and he ran into Gregor, giving him a giant hug.

"It's been so lonely without you around, especially since Luxa…" Gregor realized that Hazard had started sobbing.

"It's okay, Hazard," Boots said, hugging him.

"Yeah, I'd like to know what happened to her," Gregor said, glancing back up at Mareth.

"And you shall. But first- have you eaten recently?" Mareth gestured toward two servants behind him, each carrying armloads of baskets. But no- only one of them was a servant. The other was…

"Howard!" Gregor said, smiling broadly.

"Hello, Overlander! It is good to see your face again!" Howard said, grinning back at him.

"You, too!" Gregor said.

"Howard… you helped me in the hospital," Gregor's mom said, looking sideways at Howard and smiling in remembrance.

"I believe I did," Howard said, holding a hand out for her to shake.

"Hey, Dad, this is- Dad?" Gregor said, turning around to face him. His father was against the back wall, his eyes wide, making him look partially insane.

"It's okay, Dad," Gregor said, walking towards him.

"I know it is, son," Gregor's dad said, smiling weakly, but he could tell that he was terrified.

"Well, Dad, this is Mareth, I don't know if you two have met before," Gregor said, gesturing toward his friend.

"I don't believe we have. I vaguely remember catching a few glimpses of you when you were first here, but I don't think we've ever actually spoken," Mareth said, chuckling. Gregor's dad nodded at him.

"And his is Howard. He's a doctor," Gregor said, gesturing toward Howard.

"Hello!" Howard said, shaking Gregor's dad's hand.

"And this is Temp," Gregor said, patting Temp's shell awkwardly.

"Welcome back, Overlander, welcome back," Temp said, looking nervous.

"Temp!" Boots screamed, running up to Temp and giving him a giant hug.

"Hello, Princess, hello," Temp said, his antennae quivering with excitement. When he saw Gregor's mom, he bowed to her and said, "Welcome back, Maker of the Princess and Most Fearsome Swatter, welcome."

Gregor's dad looked questioningly at his wife, and she said, "Don't even ask."

"I believe the food is ready," Mareth said, looking back at the servant, who had, to Gregor's surprise, already set the table with plates, bowls and silverware, with bigger plates in the middle, loaded with food.

"Let's eat," Vikus said, smiling.

Everyone sat down and ate a huge and delicious dinner of different types of fish, beef, mushrooms, and leafy things Gregor recognized from his previous Underland visits. When he simply could not eat another bite, Gregor looked around and saw that every last bit of the food was gone. His family seemed surprised by this, too, but Mareth, Vikus, and Howard looked at Hazard, stifling laughs.

"What?" he asked in a small voice, and everyone cracked up.

"He's been going through what I believe you call a 'growth spurt,'" Mareth said through his laughter. "He's been eating like a shiner all week!"

Gregor remembered how much the fireflies in the Underland had eaten and laughed even harder. "I have not," Hazard said, crossing his arms and pouting, but a smile broke through the frown and he started laughing, too.

After about a minute, when the laughter had started to die down, Gregor turned to Howard, who was sitting next to him. "So… Luxa?" he asked in a low voice to keep Hazard from hearing. He didn't want him to feel more pain than he already did, especially since it already seemed to be a sore topic for the boy.

"Ah, yes," Howard said, glancing up where Gregor was looking at Hazard. "We will tell you after Hazard and Boots have gone to bed." Gregor sighed quietly. He wished that they would stop with the suspense and just tell him already.

They talked for awhile, catching up on what's been going on with Gregor's family. Apparently, Hazard had bonded with the misshapen bat, whose name was Castor. Talia, the bat Hazard was going to bond with before she suffocated from poisonous ash on a quest, had been his cousin. Boots talked to Hazard and Temp excitedly about some new dolls that she got for her birthday a month earlier, and Hazard seemed very uninterested in the girly toys. When Hazard got sick of hearing about who Ken was currently cheating on Barbie with (Boots was obviously going to grow up to be some sort of gossip-girl journalist), he got her started back up with speaking Crawler, making clicking noises with their mouths and laughing as they communicated with Temp.

Finally, after almost two hours of eating, talking, and laughing, Gregor's mom said, "Well, Boots, I think it's your bedtime, don't you?"

"No!" Boots said, crossing her arms in front of her chest and pouting. Temp and Hazard continued chattering in Crawler quietly.

"Boots, remember our conversation?" Gregor's mother asked, raising her eyebrows at Boots and giving her a stern look. Apparently, it had been a strict lecture of a conversation, because Boots quickly agreed.

"Mom, Dad, you should probably go, too," Gregor said. He didn't want his parents to freak out if he found out he was mentioned in a new prophecy or anything.

"No we're not," they said in unison.

"We're not leaving you. This place is _our_ home, too," Gregor's dad said, and something in his eyes forced Gregor to nod.

"Lizzie? You staying?" he asked her, and she nodded.

"Then why can't I stay?" Boots whined. "I wanna find out what happened to Luxa, too!"

At this, Hazard stopped talking to Temp and looked up nervously, his eyes already flooding with tears. "Luxa? You don't know?"

"Hazard, it's probably best that you leave with Boots," Howard said quickly, but Hazard and Boots shook their heads violently.

"Aren't they old enough to help? I was younger than both of them when I was down here, and I still was a part of it," Lizzie said, looking at Gregor pleadingly.

Gregor sighed. "Do you really wanna stay?" he asked, not really directing the question at anyone.

"Yes," everyone in the room said, creature or human.

"Alright," Gregor said, moving back toward the table. Everyone else followed his lead and sat around the table, looking sad and serious, but ready to get things done.

"First things first," Mareth, who hadn't spoken in awhile, started. "About a week after you left, rumors started flying through the jungles like what I believe you call _wildfires_."

"Rumors?" Gregor asked. He couldn't help it; he just wanted to be told that everything would be okay, that he would see Luxa again, after so long…

"Rumors about you, rumors about the new alliance between the crawlers, the gnawers, the nibblers, the shiners, the stingers, the spinners, the flyers, and the humans. Rumors about the fate of the Underland." Mareth continued. Gregor's eyebrows raised. "The stories may vary, but the message is the same; you caused half of the Underland to become allies, something never done before, something _unheard of_. However, the rest of the Underland-the cutters, the slimers, the twisters, the diggers, the serpents, the hissers, even the mites-has found this as a death threat. We may have allied ourselves with half of the Underland's population, but our land largely outnumbers theirs. With this number of creatures helping each other, giving each other resources, we've completely discarded the rest of our world, leaving them to have our leftovers as they fight on their own."

"But they tried to _kill_ us, several times!" Gregor exclaimed, not understanding how what he had done could be a bad thing. "We _could_ have allied ourselves with them, but they tried to kill us, so why should we?"

"I know, Gregor," Mareth said, putting his head in his hands. "The Underland is in chaos. And that's not even the beginning. After about two years of silence from our fellow creatures, new rumors started going around of threats to capture a certain Overland warrior."

Everyone looked at Gregor. "But they didn't," Gregor said, silently urging Mareth to go on.

"I'm getting there. The threats kept going on for about three years, until even the slightest mention of them became less fearful, and more irksome. There were stories of creatures going to the Overland to find you, but they ended up spontaneously getting a mysterious disease that seems to be going around the Dead Lands. Everyone thought the threats were empty, that it was impossible for them to capture you, but then, a cutter went and did the impossible. He actually went to the Overland."

"What?" Lizzie said, looking stunned. "But wouldn't we have heard if there was an ant a million times its normal size running around New York?"

"He went up only for a few minutes. They say he went up an entrance unknown to us, an entrance in the Deadlands. He went up, bit a single branch off of a tree, and brought it back down, just to prove that he could." Gregor sat very still, knowing what Mareth was trying to say.

"To prove that he could just as easily come up and kill me," Gregor said slowly. There was a long, silent pause. "But what's this have to do with Luxa? Where is she?" Gregor asked.

"Ah, yes, Luxa…" Howard said, his voice choking slightly, but he went on, "Eventually, less than a month ago, the same cutter and his friends claimed to have captured you and brought you down from the Overland. Only this time, they had something to prove that they had captured you. Something only you would have. The cutters did not understand the importance of this certain thing, though. It was something that only a selected few humans knew you would never, _ever_ be without. It was a picture, a real-life one from your… picture… machine. Of you and Luxa, in the museum." Gregor's stomach seemed to flutter and sink at the same time, making Gregor feel suddenly nauseous.

"I, um… I freaked out about a month ago when I couldn't find it. I didn't know what happened, I take it with me everywhere, just so I know it was all real," Gregor said, holding back a sob. He remembered it vividly, frantically turning the entire apartment building inside-out, looking for the small piece of paper that kept him sane.

"We expected as much," Mareth muttered, sounding angry.

"Well, we believed it. We thought they'd finally done it, they'd captured you. We figured that, since nobody else knew about that picture, and since they described it exactly as we remembered it, they'd captured you and stolen it from your pocket. Luxa certainly believed it. Something happened to her, she went several nights without sleep, finally sneaking past the guards to find you and bring you back. We had discouraged the idea of going after you without coming up with a plan, but she never listened." Howard's voice broke down, and Mareth had to go on for him.

"It was a clever plan, luring the Queen herself to find you. They now have much leverage with our side of the Underland."

"Yeah." Gregor didn't know what else to say. Suddenly, he remembered what Mareth had said earlier. "What about the gnawer pups?"

"When I asked them what happened, what they said was something similar to the nibbler ones that one time," Hazard said. He'd seemed to cheer up at the thought of them. Gregor remembered he and Boots playing with the nibbler pups their last visit. "They said that their mother had told them to stay quiet, that everything would be fine. She sent them in the river with some food, but they ate it quickly and were close to starving when our scouts found them."

"Did they say who their parents were? Are they still alive?" Lizzie asked, leaning forward suddenly.

"Yeah, they said who their parents were, and I'm pretty sure they're still alive," Hazard said, smiling a little.

"Who are their parents?" Lizzie asked seriously. Gregor couldn't tell what was going on, but Lizzie seemed to know something he didn't.

At this, Hazard grinned. "Their mother's name was Slicer, and their father was Ripred."


	5. Chapter 5- Some Overdue Answers

**Chapter 5**

 **Some Overdue Answers**

The gnawer pups squealed in delight when they saw more friends to play with, and Boots immediately ran up to pet them, giggling. They hopped all over, until she was a mountain of gray and black fur with her fuzzy little head popping out. Temp played with them, too, giving them and Boots rides around the room while the rest scurried along beside them, waiting their turn. Gregor forced a smile and played with them for a couple minutes, then pulled Mareth, who had a gaunt expression on his face, aside.

"I still don't get what's going on," Gregor said, having had about enough of all the secrecy.

Mareth sighed. "Alright, we'll all talk soon, just wait one moment, please, Gregor." Mareth crossed over to Vikus and whispered something in his ear. Vikus nodded, glancing at Gregor, and mumbled something that made Mareth stand back up.

"I think we can all agree that we need to tell you everything before we can rescue Queen Luxa," Mareth said, and the excited squeaks of the gnawer pups faded away quickly.

"Perhaps we should sit down?" Howard offered, and they followed him, gnawer pups and all, into a sort of lounge nearby.

"So, I still don't understand a lot of what's going on," Gregor said once they'd all been seated, thinking of all the frantic thoughts swirling around his head, but he held his tongue, wanting to hear Mareth out before bombarding them with questions. Boots and Hazard looked up from their playing curiously. Mareth began.

"Well, like we said, it started with the rumors about the cutters, how one of them brought down a branch, then led to rumors of them capturing you. Luxa heard of the photo they claimed to have stolen from you, the one that only a select few of us down here knew about, and immediately wanted to rescue you. We warned her against it-not because we didn't want to, of course, but because we wanted to make a plan first. We had no idea what the cutters would be planning, but we knew it must be a trap of some kind. We woke up the day after the planning began to find that Luxa and Aurora had gone. Certain that they had captured her, we sent some Regalian soldiers off to look for her in the Deadlands. Only rumors returned, saying that there was a great battle by the Crawler's land near the Waterway. There were no human survivors. Since then, we've sent for you, in hopes that you can help us."

They all sat in silence for awhile, taking in this massive amount of information.

"And… Ripred?" Gregor asked.

Mareth cleared his throat. "Ripred lost contact with us just as Luxa disappeared. Not wanting to alert any cutters or other enemies of his rescuing Luxa, we told no one. He came here two hours after we alerted him that the queen was missing, and he left two hours after that to search for her. We have not heard from him since. Well, except for…" They followed his gaze to the gnawer pups, who had formed another fur blanket over Hazard and Boots, squeaking quietly. "He never told us that he had started another family. But these pups all say it is true; he is their father. We guess that's where he's been lately, before this started; taking care of them. He must have left their mother, Slicer, to take care of them while he searched for Luxa. But something must have happened to her, or else…"

"Or else she wouldn't have sent them along the waterway," Grace finished. More silence.

Then, Gregor sat up suddenly. "But… something must've happened before all this-before that one ant brought down a branch-that sort of… _spurred_ them to make some attack of some kind, right?" Everyone looked at him, puzzled. "I mean… wouldn't something have had to of happened to make them want to start all this all of a sudden? I just… Well, honestly, I don't think they're clever enough to set all this up on their own **(There you go, Dragons Boy)**."

More staring. Then, Howard said, "You think they are working with some other… species? That they have allies somewhere?"

"I think that they didn't just wake up one morning and decide to create some big plan to bring that picture down from the Overland, or to capture Luxa, or attack Slicer," Gregor said, choosing his words carefully. He himself didn't even know for sure what he thought. He just knew that there had to be more to this than there seemed.

"While that is very possible, since we know nothing for sure yet except for the obvious threat of the cutters, we must presently work on rescuing Luxa, and figuring out what happened to Ripred's pups," Mareth said, sighing. "And for now, we all need some sleep. It's been a rough couple of hours."

Twenty minutes later, Gregor and his family were huddled together in a room with four beds; one for his parents, one each for his sisters and him. Despite the fact that they'd been complaining about having to share a room in the Overland for years, Lizzie and Boots slept in the same bed. Gregor's mom had invited Hazard to join them, but he had shaken his head sadly and said that he prefered to be alone for awhile with his new bond.

"Ah, yes-what did you say your bond's name was?" Grace had asked, looking back and forth between Hazard and his oddly-shaped flyer, who were standing outside their room with Mareth.

"Oh, I forgot! This is Castor, my bond! Castor, this is Gregor, Boots, Lizzie, and their parents!" Hazard said, his face lighting up as he made the introductions.

"You can call me Grace," Grace said, blushing a little.

"Greetings," the small bat purred. "I am Castor."

"Yes, I heard," Gregor's mom said, laughing lightly.

"Well, we'll leave you guys to sleep. Good night!" Hazard said, hopping onto Selene, who took off down the giant hallway.

"Gregor… I don't mean to be rude, but do you know what… what's wrong with…?" Gregor's mom whispered to him.

"No, I was wondering that, too. I didn't meet her the last time we were here," Gregor said, peering around the door again to get a last glimpse of the small bat with the even smaller boy. He smiled, then stopped himself, remembering why they were down there in the first place.

Seeing his expression, his mom said, "Don't worry, Gregor. They'll find her. _You_ will find her. I know it. And although I _hate_ this, I _hate_ sending you off again like this… I know you can handle yourself. I mean, that one prophecy last time said you were going to die, and everyone believed it, but you _didn't_ , right?"

"Yes, Mom. I'm a zombie," Gregor said, and they laughed a little.

"Well, let's get to bed," Grace said, and they did.

Gregor stared up at the blackness above him, not able to fall asleep, just thinking about that violet-eyed girl who had no idea how much he had yearned for her for six years.

 **Idk if anyone will notice but I messed up on a couple names after forgetting I'd already come up with them, sorry :) I tried to fix it now but sometimes the site is weird and doesn't show changes? Idk I'm pretty new to it, I don't use it a lot except for writing this and two or three stories I'm reading so :D**


	6. Chapter 6- The Search Begins

**Chapter 6**

 **The Search Begins**

"Gregor! Breakfast!"

Gregor opened his eyes to find not the usual sunlight shining in through his window, but a room brightly-lit by torches and candles. Confused, Gregor rolled onto his side to check his bedroom clock, but then he realized he wasn't in his bedroom. Remembering the events from the night before and not really knowing what to think, he got up and put his shoes on with his family.

He'd only gotten a couple hours of sleep the night before, but he didn't care. If anything, he somehow was a little more energetic than usual. Maybe it was because of the thought that he might see Luxa again.

"Hurry _up_ …" Boots whined, kicking the ground as she waited in the doorway for them. Gregor smiled, and he and his family stepped out into the hallway, where Aether, Nike, Andromeda, and Castor were flying around in circles in a sort of tag game. Hazard flew on Castor, laughing as they chased Aether around above them.

Noticing Gregor and his family were finally ready, Hazard shouted, "Come on! If we hurry, we can play with the gnawer pups and work on how to get Luxa back!" Two very different things, Gregor thought, but he supposed Hazard especially deserved some fun to come out of this mess. The bats landed, and Gregor and his mom climbed onto Aether's back while his dad climbed onto Nike with Howard, and the girls climbed onto Andromeda with Mareth. Hazard and Castor zipped around, weaving between the bats impatiently on the way to the dining hall.

When they got there, he hopped off and led Gregor's family to the table, where they had breakfast. Hazard talked about Castor, who apparently had been raised by some of Ripred's allies, Lapblood and her children. Apparently, his parents (Castor's) had, for whatever reason, sided with the gnawers, and had beat Castor when he was just a baby. Before he could fly, they were careless and dropped him whenever he spoke of the humans, wondering why his parents thought the humans were so murderous when they had previously shown such kindness toward flyers.

"Oh, dear…" Gregor's mom said, putting a hand to her heart, her eyes filling with tears.

"It wasn't bad once Lapblood found me. She and her family raised me as one of their own, and I helped them out by finding food and delivering messages to other allies. I suppose my small size and shape makes me a bit faster than is normal for flyers," Castor said thoughtfully.

Hazard nodded vigorously in agreement. "You should see him in the races-he's faster than even the _biggest_ bats…" he said, holding his arms far apart for emphasis, going on for awhile about how many contests Castor had won that featured speed.

Gregor watched and nodded with Hazard while he was rambling, but he wasn't really listening. His mind had begun to drift toward Luxa, and apparently Hazard could tell, because he suddenly stopped talking. Hazard looked up at Mareth and Howard, who were smiling down at him from across the table.

"When will we find Luxa?" Hazard asked.

"The sooner we get started planning, the better," Mareth said, clapping his hands together, and some servants came and took the dishes away. They all headed down the hallway a short ways until Mareth led them into a room, where a gnawer, a crawler, a nibbler, a digger, and a spinner were seated around a large table with a map of the Underland on it. Gregor vaguely recognized the faces of Lapblood, Temp, Heronian, and Reflex. He even thought there may have been something slightly familiar about the mole, who he thought he remembered had been chosen for the diggers' representative. Just as he realized that at this moment, the representatives from each of the species in the Underland were in this room, united as one team, a woman who he didn't recognize stood up from the far end of the round table, putting her hand up to her forehead in a sort of salute to Mareth, who was walking in behind Gregor and the others. The guards near the door did the same, following her lead.

"Oh, nonsense-you may be seated," Mareth said, but he looked a little happy at the show of respect.

"Wait, are you… Who's the new, like, head of the army now?" Gregor asked, looking between the soldiers and Mareth.

"I suppose that would be me," Mareth said, sliding into a spot at the head of the table. "It never really was official, and I really don't think I'm worthy of the position…" he said, looking kind of sad.

"Oh, stop it, we all know that you're the best out there," the woman seated next to Mareth said, rolling her eyes and putting her hand on his. She had the typical blonde hair of the Underlanders, but hers was slightly different. Rather than looking bleached white from the lack of sunlight, her hair had an almost red tint to it. Her hair was in short, braided pigtails that almost made her appear childish and vulnerable, but something about the look on her face told Gregor to never underestimate her when it came to fighting. She held her head up high, and obviously had eyes only for Mareth.

Lizzie, who was a total girl when it came to couples, put her hand over her mouth and sunk down in her seat, eyes sparkling as they flicked between the woman and Mareth.

"Alright, then. Door, please," Mareth said, waving at the guards, who closed the doors behind them, leaving the delegates sitting in silence. "Please, sit down," Mareth said to Hazard, Howard, and Gregor's family, and they did so, Gregor squeezing between his mom and Mareth at a spot near the front.

"For those of you who don't know or don't remember, this is my wife, Guinevere. Most of us call her Gwen. And I believe you all somewhat know each other, but if you don't, this is Lapblood, Reflex, Heronian, Temp-"

"TEMP!" Boots screamed, making them all jump, and she ran up and hugged the big bug.

Mareth chuckled. "Yes, Temp, Nike, and, um…" He looked sideways at the mole, and Gregor smiled, remembering how nobody had understood how to pronounce his name when he had been elected as the diggers' representative. The mole shook his head in irritation, snorted, then sent a series of squeaks to Lapblood. Gregor supposed the language would be similar, because weren't moles rodents? Or at least close to them? He couldn't remember.

"He says you can just call him Klaus. It is the closest thing you can probably pronounce in his name," Lapblood said, smirking, but her tone was kind.

"Alright, then. Klaus, and then Gregor, and his family: Lizzie, the codebreaker; Boots, the princess; Grace, their mother-"

"And the most fearsome swatter," Boots said, grinning at Temp.

"Ah, yes-their mother and the most fearsome swatter; and **(insert dad's name here, I don't know what it is :P)** , their father and the first of their family taken into the Underland," Mareth finally finished, looking slightly out of breath. Gregor's family all gave small waves at the rest of the room. Mareth laughed cheerfully, and Gregor cracked a smile.

"Well, then, on to business," Gwen said, smiling as she pulled out journals, quills, bottles of ink, and various small maps out from a cabinet behind them and set them on the table.

"Woah," Gregor said, a little overwhelmed by all of the plans sitting before him.

"Yes, well, we've been going over this for awhile now. We just haven't found a way to get Luxa back without anyone getting harmed," Mareth said, and he and Gwen showed Gregor and the others the information they had dug up so far on different cutters, their names, their _code_ names, how they were involved, what they had been heard planning from Regalian spies, and what they were expected to do quite soon if nobody came to get Luxa. The cutter who had brought the branch down from the Overland, who had claimed to have taken Gregor in the first place, was referred to as "A". A's father, B, who apparently was sort of a brave, rich, well-known figure among the cutters, had helped with the capture of Luxa. Luxa had made her way on Aurora all the way to about a mile into the jungle before she had been attacked. Rumors said that she fought bravely, and when the cutters soon learned that only the three of them in the first wave of attacks- C, D, and E-were were all killed easily within the minute, they sent a hundred more behind them to finish the kidnapping. The only ransom they had sent was for the "undead warrior", as Mareth quoted from several conversations overheard between cutters, "...and we _definitely_ aren't going to give them that," Mareth finished.

"Oh… why not?" Gregor asked thoughtfully.

"Huh?" everyone asked, surprised and angry.

"Well, obviously, I don't want to be killed, but… I mean, I could try to… why don't we just… I don't know, nevermind," Gregor said sheepishly, looking down at his scarred hands, fists in his lap.

"Actually, you might be onto something, Warrior," Heronian said, sliding some of the plans over to read them easier. "They will be expecting us to send an army, and attack of some kind, or for you to run off and turn yourself over to save Luxa. If we somehow sent a spy in-most likely not being you, however, since you're the one they want-then maybe, just _maybe_ , we could get some more information. As you said earlier, _something_ has to have triggered this, and as far as anybody knows, none of us," he gestured around the group, "has done anything that would necessarily trigger this sudden hatred towards us. They've always hated us, of course, but why strike now? Why wait until _now_ , so many years later, to execute this kidnapping, to lure the Warrior to them and kill him? Why not just kill him, so many years before?"

"Exactly! That's what I was thinking," Gregor said, relieved that at last, somebody might be getting somewhere. "So, what, maybe someone could spy on them? Like, maybe pretend to be captured or something, let them think that they'd won something, and then… Or maybe they could, like, just sort of hide out around the edges or something, and try to find rumors of what's going on…"

Gwen nodded. "If we figure something out, we will surely let you know. For now, think on Gregor's plan, and see if we can somehow make it work. If we have someone on the inside, pretending to be weak and a nothing, maybe even just someone who delivers supplies or something, then maybe… maybe we can get some information. Bring both he and information on Luxa, if not Her Majesty herself, back to us. I'm sure they wouldn't think too much on of the species here helping them out, since there obviously are at least _some_ people who think that this alliance was a mistake. Surely there are several figures who would love to see us all dead."

"If we did-hypothetically speaking, of course-then we'd have to make sure that they didn't capture him or her, obviously. We need a spy to get information, and whoever volunteers-certainly not Gregor, or anyone else well-known-will have to go undercover, as you say, to appear as someone whom they would look over. Maybe someone who just happened to want the humans dead, too. A gnawer or digger, most likely-I mean no offense, Klaus, Lapblood-just since there already are some who still wish to see everyone who sides with the humans dead…" Mareth said.

Lapblood nodded. "Yes, some have some _very_ strong opinions, and they certainly are quiet about it, especially around me. Ripred, too-if Ripred ever heard anyone speaking in such a way, well…" she said, trailing off, and Gregor assumed she meant that he scarred them for life, whether it be literally or simply through a threat.

"Yes, we can find a volunteer, a gnawer or a digger-one almost nobody knows, one who can get in and out quickly, as you say," Lizzie said, eyes sparkling as she turned her head sideways to get a better glimpse of the papers next to Heronian. "How big is the gnawer and digger species, exactly? Like, is it like a small town, where everybody knows everybody? Or is it big enough that some are looked over, forgotten, have no connection to anyone else?" she asked thoughtfully. "Or any of the other species, too? We just need _someone_ who hasn't really expressed their opinion much on the humans, who not many know, who just will seem like any other person…"

Klaus, who had been getting quiet squeaks from Lapblood about what Gregor were assumed just updates on where the conversation was going, suddenly started snorting and squeaking loudly. Lapblood's head jerked up, and she squeaked back eagerly. Finally, Lapblood turned to the group and said excitedly, "He says he knows of someone. A digger, a mere 'teenager' in human years, who has seemed to remain neutral to the situation so far. He is but a silent worker among them, one of the many who doesn't own much, isn't given much for his work, and is ignored. He would work as a good spy, if that is our current plan. We should easily be able to sneak him in and out, along with some information. Klaus says he knows of many other diggers who have already sided with the cutters long ago, so one more shouldn't be a surprise to them."

Mareth clapped his hands together. "Great. Do you think this digger will be able to help us, Klaus? Would he be willing to volunteer himself? It shouldn't be too dangerous, as long as he isn't in there for too long and is only a short ways away from here, since there is no time to waste."

After a quick exchange of squeaks, Lapblood turned back to the group and said, "He says he could be here within minutes. This digger he speaks of is his brother."

 **Sorry if this was a boring or repetitive one, I kinda have had writer's block for a couple months :( If anyone has any suggestions, don't go easy on me, because this is my first fanfic as you can probably tell and feedback would be much appreciated :) Sorry again if it's bad, if it is, please tell me how I can change it :D I won't work on the next chapter until I get feedback, just because I don't really care for how I wrote this chapter, but that might be because it's been so long since I started it, and I've read it through so much. It seems to me anyway like those long and boring books I hate but I honestly was getting kind of sick of staying on one chapter for so long, so I just went with it. We'll see how it goes :(**


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